Utah beats UNLV, Late start effects academics

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 4:24 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY -- It was already Tuesday when the final horn sounded.

Many of the crowd of 13,291 had long since left the Huntsman Center, Utah's 79-68 win over UNLV safely in the books. And a good number of those who attended, they had to be up early today to hit the books for morning classes.

So why are there college basketball games being played at an hour when the only other place in town that has any action is a Denny's restaurant?

Utah coach Rick Majerus would like to know. Actually, he does know why. It's just that the Utes' main man thinks it's bunch of no-doze to be playing basketball on a school day after midnight. Even for college-age kids. Even if it means having the whole nation, or at least those who are suffering from insomnia, get to see you perform.

"This is so ludicrous," he said after his fifth-ranked team had won its 23rd game of the yeear and improved to 12-2 in the WAC Mountain Division. "I can see if a coach came up with this. But I'd love to see what these guys in the conference office got their degrees in.

"It's bad for academics. It's disruptive for the fans. There's a great cadre of old fans and I'm sure they're alike my mom, who's 72, and at 10 o'clock, they're down for the count.

"Actually, this was a pretty good crowd considering the late start, the fact it's raining and snowing out and the freeways here (in Salt Lake City) are an absolute travesty."

Majerus felt so strongly about what he perceived to be a travesty, he told his players not to go to class today. It was his way of making a statement to the WAC and anyone who would care to listen that playing games at such a late hour is of no benefit to the student-athlete.

"I'm the king of academics," Majerus said in explaining his reasoning behind promoting his kids to play hooky for a day. "I told them to take the day off and if their professors have a problem with it, they should call me.

"What the hell, so they'll be Summa Cum Laude for a day instead of Magna Cum Laude. Four of our five starters are on the honor roll."

It just so happened WAC commissioner Karl Benson was on hand Monday night. And naturally, he begged to differ with Majerus.

"There are 300-plus schools in Division I that would love to have this," he said of the national television exposure on ESPN. "What difference is it if it's 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock?

"Obviously, it's an inconvenience to the fans and the media, but there's a tremendous benefit. Our exposure (on ESPN) the last three years has been unbelievable. If we could bump the Big 12 out of their time slot (6:30-8:30 Pacific time), that would be great. But obviously, that's not likely to happen.

"All I know is the day we give up Big Monday, I'd have more coaches complaining about the lack of television exposure than we do complaints about the starting time."

Majerus said, "If they think they're throwing me a bone, I'll give it back to them."

And if Majerus throws the bone back, UNLV coach Bill Bayno will gladly take it.

"Maybe being on TV isn't important to Utah, but I think it's important for us to be on," he said. "It's a predicament Karl has to deal with.

"But we've been through worse. Last year, we played TCU and the game didn't end until after 1 in the morning and we didn't get back to our hotel until after 2."

Still, Bayno had to deal with the inconvenience of playing at such a late hour. His team spent all day lounging around its hotel, waiting for the 10 p.m. tipoff. It probably had something to do with UNLV's slow start, as the Rebels made just five field goals in the first 13 minutes.

"We were sluggish," Bayno said. "But we were in it for most of the half. We just couldn't make free throws when we had to."

The Rebels were coming off a season-best effort at the line against Brigham Young where they made 34 of 45 attempts. Monday, they shot just 66 percent from the stripe, hitting 25 of 38.

Junior Kevin Simmons, who led all scorers with 22 points, said the late start may have hurt the team. But it's no excuse for the loss which dropped UNLV to 14-12 overall, 5-7 in the Mountain Division with two games to play, both at home against Wyoming Thursday and Colorado State Saturday.

"Maybe it did with some guys," he said. "But it shouldn't matter. I used to play in the parks until 2 in the morning, then go to class."

Simmons will get to relive those boyhood memories as the team didn't get back to its hotel until 1 a.m. and was up at 5:30 to catch a 7 a.m. flight back to Las Vegas in order to be in class at 9.

"Our guys will be in class," Bayno said. "Or they'll be up at 6 a.m. to run."

Majerus, meanwhile, has mandated that his guys sleep in. This is the second in a four gamees in eight days stretch for the fifth-ranked Utes. They'll be on a plane tonight to El Paso and will face UTEP Thursday. Then it's back on the plane after the game to prepare for the WAC Mountain showdown with New Mexico Saturday at the Huntsman Center.

"It takes its toll on you," said Utes center Michael Doleac, a pre-med major who is headed for medical school next year. "It's exciting to play like this. But you lose a lot of studying time.

"Fortunately, with the extra time before the game, I was able to hit the books some. But it's pretty hard trying to maintain your school with the basketball season like this."

Hoop du jour

* OH, RATS: The first half was coming to an end Monday, when out of nowhere, a rat appeared on the court. The rodent caught the players by surprise as UNLV's Tyrone Nesby jerked Utah's Alex Jensen away from the rat, who lay motionless for a few seconds until a Huntsman Center janitor scooped him up and took him away. "I didn't realize I had stepped on it," Jensen said. "I thought it was one of those plastic rats." ... The rat sighting was part of what was A Hard Day's Night for Nesby. He was limited to just one field goal, a 3-pointer with 2:07 to play, and finished with onlyy five points and no rebounds.

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